The invention relates to an authenticity output apparatus for outputting a verification result of authenticity of information and, more particularly, to a technique which is effective when it is applied to an authenticity output apparatus for preventing a false authenticity display by the third party.
In EC (Electronic Commerce) activities or the like on a network, an authenticating technique for authenticating the real existence, person himself, further, a credit, and the like of a transaction partner is extremely important. Although there are encrypting techniques (public key system, secret key system) as a foundation technique for realizing such an authenticating technique, a password or the like is also widely used.
Also in the handling of a homepage or other digital contents, a condition such that it is not altered is necessary and it is necessary to confirm that it is a script. For this purpose, although there is an electronic seal or the like which can confirm the authenticity, a method which is similarly based on the encrypting technique and other various methods are used as foundation techniques.
As a technique which is used in the WEB site, there is a technique for confirming by using marks for confirmation of the authenticity (JP-A-11-239129). In such an example, in order to verify the authenticity of digital data such as page data or the like, mark image data in which authentication information has been embedded as a digital watermark is added to the digital data and an authenticating process is executed by using the authentication information in the marks, thereby enabling whether the digital data has been altered or not to be verified and enabling whether the site has been authenticated as a superior site by a mark issuing institution or not to be verified. In the electronic authentication foundation, means for verifying by using the public key encrypting system has been realized in order to certify the person himself on the Internet.
According to the conventional technique, there is a problem such that when a behavior (dialog display) of an authenticity display which is outputted by a result of a legal authenticating process or a false display which imitates a display of an image change is executed by the third party having an evil intention via an on-line or by sending some program to a client terminal, or by another means, it is difficult to distinguish a display as a result of a legal authenticating process from a display as a result of a false authenticating process.